Attention Met Fans: Is Wright Best Ever?

I commend to your attention, if you live and die with the ballers in Flushing, this article by Alex Remington and published by the excellent site Fangraphs. 

On the occasion of David Wright's ascension to alltime Met RBI king, Remington notes that Wright was already the greatest Met position player of all time. (Tom Seaver, of course, is the best player ever and will be for a long time. As Remington also points out, the history of the team is thick with pitchers but not so much with hitters.)

I've co-opted this graph to support Remington's case. It shows that while Hall of Famers have passed through, Wright's time as a Met is first for overall value as a Met.

Name	G	PA	HR	RBI	SB	triple slash		Fld	BsR	WAR
David Wright	1121	4849	186	735	151	.301/.381/.508		-26.6	7.5	40.2
Darryl Strawberry	1103	4549	252	733	191	.263/.359/.520		7		36.6
Jose Reyes	1050	4840	81	423	370	.292/.341/.441		15.4	18.5	33.4
Carlos Beltran	839	3640	149	559	100	.280/.369/.500		12.4	17.3	30.9
Edgardo Alfonzo	1075	4449	120	538	45	.292/.367/.445		44.9		30.7
Mike Piazza	970	3941	220	655	7	.296/.373/.542		-48.9	-7.2	30.2
Keith Hernandez	875	3684	80	468	17	.297/.387/.429		52		27.0
Howard Johnson	1149	4591	192	629	202	.251/.341/.459		-81		24.0

 

WAR=Wins Against Replacement

The fielding numbers are calculated in runs, not in wins, so Piazza loses about five wins, not 49, for his ineptitude as a backstop. Also remember that WAR is adjusted for position. Wright's hitting prowess is remarkable compared to other hot cornermen while Hernandez lacked the punch of most first basemen and Straw was being measured against other corner outfielders.

Your mileage may vary when it comes to who the greatest everyday Met has been, but if he stays with the team, by next year David Wright should be #1 alltime in hits, walks, doubles, runs, RBIs and batting average (for players with more than 500 at bats) as a Met.

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